What is Move More in May?
Move More in May is an annual campaign run by Sport Across Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent (SASSOT) to encourage inactive people to try something new. It aims to allay peoples’ natural fears about trying a new sport by focusing on activities targeting beginners and by promoting the message that these activities are fun, easy to do and will improve your sense of wellbeing. The campaign was trialled in 2015 on a small scale and, given it’s success, we are now running it on an annual basis with the aim of increasing the impact year on year.
Why Move More in May?
Throughout the year, various National Governing Bodies run campaigns to encourage more people to take up or get back into that sport. Supporting these campaigns is a key priority for SASSOT, as data shows that 57.5% of people in Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent currently take part in no sport or physical activity at all, but 53.3% of people would like to do more activity, 28.4% of whom are currently inactive.
The month of May sees more than its fair share of these NGB campaigns so, rather than try to promote them all individually, SASSOT decided to use the overarching strapline Move More in May to promote activities locally. It was felt that this would be a more effective use of staff time, it would be a more attractive offer to local media and, most importantly, it would be a better way of getting the public to actually attend one of the sessions, as they would be given one set of clear messages and could then decide which sport was right for them. NGBs were wholly supportive of this approach, as we retained their individual branding in the sport-specific information, e.g. we mentioned Great British Tennis Weekend in all the tennis-related information / promotion.
What Did We Do?
The backbone to Move More in May is the website pages. These were part of the SASSOT site, but were easy to find via google, from our homepage or via www.sportacrossstaffordshire.org.uk/movemoreinmay (the page is not currently live). New for this year, we added a searchable database to the pages, meaning people could find activities near them, or search by sport, date etc. As well as listing essential information such as date, time, venue and contact details, we contacted event organisers to find out more and to answer questions that potential attendees might ask, such as What do I wear?, How much does it cost? and Can I bring the kids too? We also made sure we listed details of whether the sessions were accessible for people with disabilities
We invited NGBs, Local Authorities and other partners to provide information about their activities, then promoted the campaign via local media, our own social media channels and via community facebook sites. We decided to extend the campaign to 5th June to include the whole of the half term holiday, and targeted partners to promote their holiday offers. Members of the SASSOT team took part in some of the activities, sometimes with their families, to take photos and videos of attendees to bring our social media promotion to life and illustrate to the public that ‘people like me’ can take part .
Campaign Reach
Move More in May promoted 998 sessions (compared to 91 in 2015). This included events organised for Back to Hockey, Go Tri, Xplorer Orienteering, Push the Boat Out week, the Great British Tennis Weekend, Go Canoeing Week and Archery GB Big Weekend, plus Local Authority and other partners’ activities. Staffordshire University’s Sir Stanley Matthews Sports Centre offered all of their fitness classes for free during the whole of May as part of the campaign.
During 2015 the activities that were given detailed radio coverage reported an average of 50% increase in attendance compared to previous similar events. This year we measured attendances at events that were only promoted as part of the general Move More in May coverage, and on average 13% of attendees found out about the activity through our campaign advertising
The Google Analytics for the SASSOT website during May show a clear increase in site visitors compared to our average (3147 in May compared to 2318 in June). There was a 246% increase in the unique visits to the campaign homepage compared to 2015, with spikes’ in visits following the Radio Stoke interviews. 72.2% of visitors to the website during May were new visitors. Visits to the campaign’s individual activity pages were fairly evenly spread, with Go Tri, Spinning, Back to Netball and Sailing being the most popular.
SASSOT sent out 118 tweets during May, most linked to Move More in May, creating 47,600 impressions. We linked with several key partners’ media teams to ensure our posts and tweets were reposted / retweeted, with the top retweet earning 2882 impressions.
Campaign posts via SASSOT own Facebook account averaged a reach of 200, and the highest audience reach was achieved on 10th May reaching over 650 people. posts across a range of local community Facebook sites had a potential reach of almost 190,000, and the videos SASSOT posted on You Tube and promoted via social media were viewed 159 times.
What Next?
Given the proof of impact, More in May is now an annual campaign for SASSOT. We built on the learning from 2015 to make 2016 a much better, more effective campaign but have identified the following improvements for next year:
- Encourage NGBs who don’t have a ‘campaign’ in May to get their clubs or partners to start their beginners / returners sessions in May, i.e. beginner running groups, Get into Golf courses etc.
- Ask Local Authorities and other providers to promote Move More in May when promoting their half term events
- Increase newspaper coverage, focus on lifestyle sections rather than sports pages
- Secure better radio coverage in the south of the county
- Further improve ways to measure the direct impact on the campaign on activities, i.e. number of participants compared to previous events, asking participants about how they heard about the event etc.
- Improve links to Staffordshire County Council and Stoke-on-Trent City Council Public Health
- Use the ‘real life’ pictures, videos etc. taken by the team this year to promote the campaign in the run up to May in 2017, and repeat team visits in 2017 to build up archive.
- Ensure involvement from the SASSOT Board, for example attendance at events, use of Twitter etc.
Resource Implications
Quarter-page advertisement in Staffordshire Living (which also gained us a two-page feature) - £295
Plug-in for website, allowing a search-by-postcode function - £70
Contact
Jane Kracke, Sports Manager
01785 619187 / jkracke@staffordbc.gov.uk
Naomi Bird, Knowledge, Communications and Equalities Manager
01785 619585 / nbird@staffordbc.gov.uk
The Media coverage secured in 2016 is shown below:
Date |
Media |
Activity |
|
29th April Onwards |
Staffordshire Living Magazine |
Two-page feature plus quarter page advert in the magazine, advert on homepage of website throughout May. Audience of 100,000 readers plus 40,000 visitors per month online |
|
1st May |
Signal One Radio |
Pre-recorded interview with SASSOT on website featuring campaign overview and walking football feature. Mention in half-hourly news bulletin all day (260,000 reach) |
|
3rd May |
Stafford Express and Star |
Short article printed |
|
3rd May |
BBC Radio Stoke |
Campaign Launch – interview with SASSOT (130,000 reach) |
|
4th May
|
BBC Radio Stoke |
Back to Netball – interview with Regional Netball Officer, Local B2N Organiser and local participant (130,000 reach) |
|
11th May |
BBC Radio Stoke |
Push the Boat Out – interview with local organiser and NGB officer (130,000 reach) |
|
12th May |
Stafford FM |
Live interview with SASSOT introducing the campaign and detailing local activities. |
|
12th May |
Cannock Chase Radio |
Live interview with SASSOT introducing the campaign and detailing local activities |
|
27th May |
BBC Radio Stoke |
Archery GB Big Weekend – interview with local club Six Towns Company of Archers (130,000 reach) |